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Nick News is a educational news program for kids and teens.Fri, 26 Jun 2015 14:23:46 +0000en-UShourly1What if You Could Go to College for Free? For Kids in One Michigan City, That’s a Realityhttp://news.nick.com/06/2015/26/what-if-you-could-go-to-college-for-free-for-kids-in-one-michigan-city-thats-a-reality/
http://news.nick.com/06/2015/26/what-if-you-could-go-to-college-for-free-for-kids-in-one-michigan-city-thats-a-reality/#commentsFri, 26 Jun 2015 14:23:46 +0000http://news.nick.com/?p=13955

LaTasha James says she never seriously considered going to college when she was a kid – largely because she didn’t think that she and her mom would be able to pay for it. Then came the Kalamazoo Promise.

“It definitely changed high school and how seriously I took it,” James told the Christian Science Monitor newspaper. “I wouldn’t have reached for … extra things if I had not known I was going to college afterwards.”

The Kalamazoo Promise was established by anonymous donors in 2005, according to media reports. The Promise is simple: If you’re kid who went to public school in Kalamazoo, Michigan, before 9th grade and go on to graduate from high school, your college tuition is paid for – 100 percent, in most cases. There are some conditions.

You have go to college in Michigan – either a public university or (starting this year) one of 15 private colleges in the state, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette. And you have to finish college within ten years. According to the results of a study released on Thursday, the Promise has resulted in a significant increase in the number of Kalamazoo kids who not only go to college but finish it as well.

“For some kids, it’s made their future a whole lot brighter,” said Tim Bartik, in an interview with Gazette reporter Julie Mack. Bartik co-authored the study for the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. His conclusion? “Students eligible for the Kalamazoo Promise are more successful in completing college,” he told Kalamazoo TV station WMMT.

How much more successful? According to the study, only around 36% of Kalamazoo Public Schools students graduated from college within six years before the Promise was created. But in the past ten years, that number has risen to 48%. That’s still fewer than half. But in a city where 62 percent of the public school students are non-white and 70 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, that’s still a significant increase, according to the researchers and Kalamazoo’s educators.

“The results are pretty powerful,” said Janice Brown, who was Kalamazoo’s school superintendent when the Kalamazoo Promise began, according to the Gazette. “It shows the Promise pays off.” And how.

According to media reports, the Promise has paid out approximately $66 million in scholarship money to nearly 4,000 Kalamazoo students. And all they had to do was graduate from high school. The researchers say some of those students would have gone on to college anyway. But for kids such as LaTasha James, the Promise was a life-changer. According to the Monitor, she graduated this year from Western Michigan University – and now has a job with General Motors in Detroit.

She called the Promise “an amazing bonus,” according to Monitor reporter Stacy Teicher Khadaroo. “There’s this feeling that it’s a tremendous gift,” said Bob Jorth, the Kalamazoo Promise’s executive director, in an interview with the Monitor. Now, the goal is to make sure even more kids take advantage of it. “It’s our responsibility to make it work,” he said.

]]>http://news.nick.com/06/2015/26/what-if-you-could-go-to-college-for-free-for-kids-in-one-michigan-city-thats-a-reality/feed/0Bible Study Goes on as Scheduled Wednesday, at Church Where Nine Were Killedhttp://news.nick.com/06/2015/25/bible-study-goes-on-as-scheduled-wednesday-at-church-where-nine-were-killed/
http://news.nick.com/06/2015/25/bible-study-goes-on-as-scheduled-wednesday-at-church-where-nine-were-killed/#commentsThu, 25 Jun 2015 15:15:07 +0000http://news.nick.com/?p=13951

“Because of our faith, we have shown up once more again to declare that Jesus lives,” the Reverend Norvell Goff told the gathering. “And because he lives, we can face tomorrow.”

It was that spirit of faith and determination that brought nearly 200 people to the weekly Bible study class at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Wednesday night, according to the Charleston (South Carolina) Post and Courier – the same class and the same church where nine worshipers were shot and killed exactly a week earlier.

Some of the people who came this week were reportedly regulars. Some were relatives of the people who were gunned down. And some just came to show that hate cannot conquer love.

“We can’t allow hate to replace everything that our parents instilled in us,” said Marlene Coakley-Jenkins, in an interview with NBC News. Coakley-Jenkins’ sister Myra Thompson was one of the nine victims. But she made a point of coming all the way from Fayetteville, North Carolina – nearly 170 miles away – to honor her sister’s memory Wednesday night.

“The feeling was spiritual and uplifting,” she told NBC. “The love for one another was wonderful,” said another one of Thompson’s sisters, Claudette Coakley-Watkins, who spoke with NBC after the Bible study was over.

According media reports, there was laughter Wednesday night. And there were also tears. “Many of our hearts are broken,” Reverend Goff told the class, according to Post and Courier reporter Deanna Pan. “Only God can fix a broken heart.”

And once again, there was a remarkable spirit of forgiveness for the alleged killer – a young white man who reportedly spouted racial hatred before shooting his African-American victims. Why forgiveness?

“(Because) God loves us. He’s forgiven us of our sins,” said Marjorie McIver, another one of Thompson’s sisters, in an interview with the Post and Courier. “That message of love, even for your enemies, even for those who use you, who despise you – that’s a powerful message.”

“We know that everything that we did and everything that happened in that room just reverberated the love that we’ve been taught since we were children,” Coakley-Jenkins told NBC. Coakley-Jenkins reportedly admitted that she was still hurt and angry about her sister Myra’s death. But as hurt as they are, she said that she and her surviving sisters would not given in to hatred.

“Love is always hard,” she told NBC. “Don’t you know that?”

]]>http://news.nick.com/06/2015/25/bible-study-goes-on-as-scheduled-wednesday-at-church-where-nine-were-killed/feed/0Nation’s Largest School District Gives Kids a Day Off for Lunar New Yearhttp://news.nick.com/06/2015/24/nations-largest-school-district-gives-kids-a-day-off-for-lunar-new-year/
http://news.nick.com/06/2015/24/nations-largest-school-district-gives-kids-a-day-off-for-lunar-new-year/#commentsWed, 24 Jun 2015 15:21:09 +0000http://news.nick.com/?p=13946

Monday, February 8th, will be a day off next year for kids who attend public schools in New York City. On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that from now on, the Lunar New Year would be an official school holiday in the city – something that many Asian-Americans have been demanding for a long time.

“We pledged to families (that) we would keep working until we made Lunar New Year an official school holiday,” the Mayor said, according to a report by Reuters news service. “Today we are keeping that promise.”

The Lunar New Year is observed by people whose ancestors lived in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other countries in the Far East. It usually starts in late January or early February on the Western calendar. Of course, all kids get January 1st off. And in New York City and a number of other school districts, there are no classes on the Jewish New Year, either. But up to now, when the Lunar New Year started on a weekday, kids who observe that holiday were forced to take a sick day if they wanted to celebrate it fully.

“Finally, students of Asian descent will not be forced to choose between observing the most important holiday of the year and missing important academic work,” New York City Councilwoman Margaret Chin said, according to the New York Times. “This (day off) designation gives Lunar New Year the respect and recognition it has long deserved.”

According to media reports, in order to make up for the day off on February 8th, the school district will combine two previously scheduled half-days into a whole day on a different date. New York City is not the first school district to give kids a day off for the Lunar New Year. San Francisco already did. But anytime there’s a decision that affects 1.1 million kids – the largest school district in the country – that’s significant.

“It’s a big deal,” said New York State Senator Daniel Squadron, whose district includes the New York City neighborhood known as Chinatown, in an interview with the Times. 75,000 Asian-American kids are currently part of the city’s total school population, according to official estimates – approximately 15 percent. So they’re not an insignificant minority.

“There’s no question (that) this (decision) reflects the changing city – and the changing significance of the holiday to this city,” Squadron told the Times. To New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim, the mayor’s decision is about more than just giving kids a day off. “It’s about Asian culture being acknowledged as part of the American fabric,” he said, in an interview with the New York Daily News. “(It’s) for the next generation of kids to understand that Asian-Americans are as American as any other community.”

To many white Southerners, it’s a defiant symbol of what they consider a proud past. But to many other people – people of all races – it’s a symbol of racism and hatred and a reminder of slavery.

It’s the Confederate flag – a flag that was used by the Southern states during the Civil War. And for decades, it has flown high over the grounds of South Carolina’s state capitol in the city of Columbia.

But now, it appears, those days are coming to an end. “It’s time to move the flag from the capitol grounds,” said South Carolina’s Republican governor, Nikki Haley, at a Monday afternoon news conference.

The governor’s announcement came five days after a disturbed white man burst into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine African-Americans during a Bible study class. Pictures of the man arrested for the killings show him surrounded by the Confederate flag and other symbols that many people consider racist.

“For many people in our state, the (Confederate) flag stands for traditions that are noble,” Haley said, as both Democratic and Republican politicians stood behind her to show their support. But for others, she said, “The (Confederate) flag is a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally offensive past. “My hope is that by removing a symbol that divides us, we can move our state forward in harmony – and we can honor the nine blessed souls who are now in Heaven,” Haley said.

Haley does not have the legal authority to have the flag taken down by herself. Under South Carolina law, that will require the approval of 2/3 of South Carolina’s state senators and representatives. But Haley made it clear Monday that she wants them to approve the necessary legislation this summer. Otherwise, she said, she would call them into a special session until they take care of it.

“The flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state,” she told reporters. Some people think the Confederate flag has flown over South Carolina’s capitol ever since the Civil War. But according to media reports, it has only been flying there since 1962 – raised as a symbol of defiance, against federal efforts to end segregation and ensure African-Americans equal rights.

Despite that defiance, racial equality soon became the law of the land – not only in South Carolina but across the country. But the Confederate flag continued to fly over the state capitol until 2000. It was then moved to a different spot on the capitol grounds. And it was still flying high on Monday, even as Governor Haley was holding her news conference. Despite the horrific massacre in Charleston, some South Carolinians say the Confederate flag should continue to fly.

“There are those of us who have ancestors (who) fought and spilled blood on the side of the South when they were fighting for states’ rights,” said Republican State Senator Lee Bright, in an interview with the New York Times. “Through the years, the heroes of the South have been slandered, maligned and misrepresented. And this is a further activity in that.”

Fellow State Senator Tom Davis – who’s also a Republican – disagrees. “The Confederate battle flag now flying on the state house grounds has been misappropriated by hate grounds as a symbol of their hatred,” Davis said on Monday, according to the State, the local newspaper in Columbia. “While I respect the views of those who proudly view this flag as a symbol of their heritage, we must find another way to honor that heritage.”

12-year-old Christian Kasdorf says, “Being up in the sky is kind of awesome.”

“I would like to be a pilot someday,” he told the Dakota County Star, the local newspaper in South Sioux City, Nebraska. “It’s fun. And you get to see things from above.”

(“Sioux” is pronounced “soo.”)

Not only did Christian get a chance to ride in an airplane earlier this month.

He learned about flying it, too, thanks to a program called Young Eagles.

“It is just to get kids in the air to experience flying – and get them enthused about aviation,” said Rick Alter, the president of the Siouxland Chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), in an interview with Star reporter Alexandra Krula.

The EAA started the Young Eagles program back in 1992.

Since then, nearly two million kids across the United States and Canada have taken Young Eagles flights, said pilot John Vahrenwald, in an interview with the Quad City Times, the local newspaper in Davenport, Iowa.

“(All kids) should at least experience the freedom of flight at least once,” Vahrenwald told Times reporter Sean Leary.

Vahrenwald coordinated the Young Eagles flights at Davenport Municipal Airport earlier this month, according to the Times.

“All the kids really seem to like it,” he said. “And it’s a great way to get them interested in aviation.”

(“Aviation” means flying a plane.)

Young Eagles teams kids up with experienced pilots who show them what to do and how to do it.

“Kids have an opportunity to help control the aircraft,” said Dick Foat, a pilot from Big Bear, California, in an interview with the Big Bear Grizzly newspaper. “(They) get an idea how the aircraft flies (and) what the various instruments and controls do.”

The lessons are free for kids from 8 to 17 years old. All you need is parental permission.

“It wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I expected,” 13-year-old Garrett Morrissey told Grizzly reporter Jonathan Riley after flying. “The roughest part was the landing – and that wasn’t even very rough.

Those were the words of the Reverend Norvel Goff on Sunday morning, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

It was that very same openness that allowed a deranged gunman to enter the church last Wednesday and kill nine people during a Bible study class.

But just four days after that terrible tragedy, the church re-opened for services on Sunday.

And it was packed, with longtime members, politicians and visitors – both black and white – who came to show their support for the congregation.

“We’re not going to let hate win,” said Nancy Elliott of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, in an interview with the Post and Courier, Charleston’s local newspaper.

By “hate,” she was referred to the alleged killer – a young man who shouted racist insults at the Bible study participants before opening fire, according to media reports.

They were African-American.

He is white.

But on Sunday, people of all colors gathered together — at “Mother Emanuel” and other worship sites – to show the world that the good people of Charleston reject racism and violence.

“Some wanted to divide the race(s) – black and white and brown,” Reverend Goff told the worshipers at Emanuel, according to the New York Times. “But no weapon formed against us shall prosper.”

The alleged killer spent the weekend in a Charleston jail.

If he’s convicted, he could get the death penalty.

But even as they mourned the loss of the victims – including Emanuel’s senior pastor, the Reverend Clementa Pinckney – the church’s leaders and members were determined to move forward in a positive way.

(“Clementa” is pronounced “cluh-MEN-tay.”)

“A lot of (other) people expected us to do something strange and break out in a riot,” Reverend Goff said, according to the Post and Courier. “Well, they just don’t know us.”

Despite their grief, relatives of the victims have said that they forgive the gunman.

However, that does not mean that they don’t want him held responsible for his deadly sins.

“The blood of the ‘Mother Emanuel 9’ requires us to work until not only justice (is served) in this case, but for those who are still living in the margins of life and those who are less fortunate than ourselves,” Reverend Goff said, according to Post and Courier reporter Adam Parker.

The injustice of nine people losing their lives in a House of God has been difficult to bear – both for the victims’ friends and loved ones and for total strangers.

But the people of “Mother Emanuel” say they will not let their grief – or the gunman’s hatred – change their church.

Not its openness to strangers.

Not its choice of love over hate.

Not even the Wednesday night Bible study class.

Church member Harold Washington told the Associated Press that the class was expected go on as usual this week.

“I was the new person in the classroom (at the time),” said ZyAsia, in an interview with Durham, North Carolina, TV station WTVD. “And people was picking on me because of my size and my shape.”

ZyAsia just finished up the fifth grade at West Oxford Elementary School in Oxford, North Carolina.

And this year, she and her classmates decided to take a stand against bullying – not just in their school but in schools everywhere.

They created an anti-bullying video.

And ZyAsia played a leading role – something that has helped her in real life, she says.

“I’ve overcome my fear,” she told WTVD reporter Stephanie Lopez.

All over the country, more and more kids are standing up to bullies — and coming up with creative ways to say, “Enough is enough.”

For 8-year-old Leylah Grimes of Spring Hill, Tennessee, that started with an anti-bullying blog.

“After you read my blog, I hope you realize (that) you should make a difference in the world (and) be nice to your schoolmates, friends and family,” she wrote, according to the Columbia Daily Herald, her local newspaper.

Now, Leylah reportedly plans to start a “Stop Bullying Club,” so she can get other kids involved.

“I realized that I should encourage not just my school to stop bullying, but people all over the world,” she wrote, according to Daily Herald reporter Jay Powell.

Ten-year-old Ryan Warren has already founded an anti-bullying organization in his hometown of Sanger, California.

It’s called “Stand Up and Be Heard: Stop Bullying Now,” according to the Fresno Bee, his local newspaper.

Ryan reportedly started his club after bullies forced him to switch schools.

“He started asking, ‘Can we go to all the schools and talk to the schools about bullying?’” said his mom, Sheila Warren, in an interview with Bee reporter Michael Olinger.

Since then, Ryan has created anti-bullying bracelets, stickers and pledge cards, as well as an anti-bullying web page.

He even organized an anti-bullying rally that got him honored by local community leaders.

His advice to other kids who are being bullied?

“Try not to put up with it,” he told the Bee. “(And) as soon as you’re away from it, tell a parent or a teacher or an adult (who) you trust.”

Leylah passed on some advice as well, according to the Daily Herald – a simple message that’s actually from the Bible.

Fifteen-year-old Hikaym Rivers had a message for the suspect on Thursday night – a message he wrote on a handmade sign, according to the New York Times.

“Your evil doing did not break our community!” the sign said. “You made us stronger.”

Hikaym reportedly held the sign up outside the jail in Charleston, South Carolina, as the alleged killer was brought in.

“We’re supporting our community,” he told the Times. “And we’re taking a stand that no one can take this away from us.”

On Wednesday night, the killer – a 21-year-old white man from another part of South Carolina — opened fire during an adult Bible study class at the historic Emanuel African Episcopal Church – a church that’s been the spiritual heart of Charleston’s black community for nearly 200 years.

And according to at least one survivor, he gunned down his victims – all African-Americans — after making racially offensive statements.

“We believe this is a hate crime,” Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said, according to the Washington Post. “That is how we are investigating it.”

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch called it a hate crime as well.

And President Obama cited it as yet another horrifying example of why the United States needs tougher gun laws.

“Once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting (his) hands on a gun,” Mr. Obama told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.”

The President and a lot of other people say the fact that the victims were gunned down in a house of worship makes these killings even more evil.

“The only reason someone could walk into a church and shoot people praying is out of hate,” said Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., according to the Washington Post. “This is an unfathomable and unspeakable act by somebody filled with hate and with a deranged mind.”

Police arrested the gunman Thursday in Shelby, North Carolina – about 250 miles northwest of Charleston.

According to investigators, he’s the same man who’s seen on surveillance video from a security camera, walking into the church the night before.

According to media reports, the man is a high school dropout who’d been arrested before on drug and trespassing charges.

And he had a history of saying hateful things about black people.

But it wasn’t just African-Americans who came together in grief in Charleston on Thursday.

People of all different races and religions and ages gathered at vigils and prayer services, to show that racism won’t defeat their community – just as Hikaym’s sign said.

At a vigil at Charleston’s Morris Brown AME Church, the Reverend John Richard Bryant looked out over his diverse audience and said they looked like a quilt, according to the Times – a beautiful quilt made of many different colors.

“He’s following a religious agenda to call Christians to protect God’s creation,” said Father Thomas Massaro, a dean at Santa Clara University in California, in an interview with the LA Times.

It’s an issue that Francis has spoken about many times before –especially the negative impact that he says climate change is already having on poor people in the least developed countries.

But Thursday’s statement is an official Catholic document known as an encyclical – a letter that goes to all of the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.

So it’s getting a lot of attention worldwide.

(“Encyclical” is pronounced “en-SICK-lick-uhl.” And bishops are among the church’s highest ranking officials.)

“The challenging message is mostly directed to the richer nations of the world, to think more carefully about their lifestyles of consumption,” said Celia Deane-Drummond, a professor at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, in an interview with NBC News.

According to Reuters, the encyclical includes a call for a worldwide reduction in carbon emissions.

It also reportedly calls for an increase in policies that support the creation of renewable energy, instead of the continued use of fossil fuels such as oil and gas.

“Enormous consumption in some rich countries has repercussions in some of the poorest places on Earth,” Francis says in the statement, according to Reuters reporter Philip Pullella.

The Pope also hopes that this official statement will put pressure on world leaders who plan to attend the United Nations’ upcoming summit on climate change – pressure to do something about global warming before it’s too late.

Otherwise, he says, there could be “grave consequences,” according to Reuters.

“Pope Francis is personally committed to this issue like no other pope before him,” said Christina Figueres, the head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in an interview with the AFP news agency. “He is deeply eloquent and deeply passionate about this. And the encyclical will communicate that.”